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Monday, September 19, 2005

Triumphs from Tragedies

Overeager news outlets- fresh from a panoply of botched America-bashing assays (you’ll recall the flag-in-the-trash, the Koran-in-the-toilet, and the phantasmic legion of journo-killing National Guard soldiers)- had an unfortunate romp with Hurricane Katrina. The mass media caught the breeze of a left-wing meme which, like the cautious but certain fog that drifted over the pre-battle dirt of Gettysburg, seemed destined to fill the public purview. The press ran with it full-bore on the presumption that Democrats would hoist the banner high, permitting elemental phrases like “some are questioning” and “but critics say.”

The “Katrina betrayed a racist America” theme, however, did not last long and is now in the lonely hands of the most radical members of Congress. It is a proposition so ridiculous, in fact, that it was lumped in with the Hapless Toad as a grab-bag wail against Supreme Court nominee John Roberts.

Still, the magazine covers will last forever.

But with the New Orleans death toll tragically climbing to 423, it is worth considering what might have been. What might have been is, of course, the dire presage of Mayor Nagin: 10,000 dead. Had FEMA not dispensed billions, had the National Guard not seized control, had evacuations not been forced. Had the Red Cross not mobilized as efficiently and powerfully as it always does. 10,000, perhaps. We avoided the worst. We could have done better, but we avoided the worst.

But in other recent disasters, the blackest predictions bore out. In the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004, 150,000 souls were drowned. In Western Europe two years ago, 35,000 passed away from oppressive heat. These terrible events affected some plurality demographic: that is a mathematical certainty. But no wild shouts of “racism!” were spouted at those afflicted nations in their hours of need. No talk of “shame” that their governments (especially massive ones, in Europe’s case) could not battle the force of nature. No demands that Chirac ought to have made a bullhorn speech 48 hours earlier. A survey of wire reports of the time reveals calm, measured, neighborly assistance from the international community and the United States in particular.

But even then, the America-bashing was in full swing. A U.N. official called America stingy in its aid and Americans responded by pumping hundreds of millions into Aceh via the internet alone.

The inexorability of the Blame America reaction is plain to see. That old fogie of a knee jerks when America is hit and when others are hit. The fairness of that charge is answered ultimately, though, by the facts. The fact is that many lives were saved in New Orleans, and the death toll stands at 423. The fact is that the overall death toll is just under 1,000, with loss spread across black areas and white areas. The fact is that America gave of itself in 2003 and 2004, and continues to give today. The fact is that distant Americans care about their southern brothers. The fact is that Americans are not wont to levy criticism (at least not in the form of magazine covers presuming “national shames” upon other nations) when friends and, yes, enemies are in distress. The fact is that we just don’t deserve the bad rap.

Posted on September 19, 2005 08:52 PM. Permalink